From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 06/01
Date: 1995/06/01
Message-ID:
X-Deja-AN: 103732725
sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System)
organization: University of Waterloo
newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
- The WWF has a WrestleMania special on NBC this Sunday night. It will
presumably air the Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor match along
with Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels.
- Tekno Team 2000, Erik Watts & Chad Fortune billed as Troy & Travis,
debuted on WWF Superstars this past weekend and instantly challenged
the Bushwhackers for worst tag team in the "big two," IMO. Due to
the WWF's high-quality editing, where they switch angles right before
moves are hit (or missed, as in this case or in the Sid vs. Diesel
IYH match), it came off a little less poorly than it was to a more
critical eye. When Watts is the experienced, superior wrestler on
a team, that team is in severe trouble. How the heck did they get a
job? The Ross Effect?
- There's a fair bit of talk that Dustin Rhodes wants to go to the WWF.
- There's some weird talk that after (or even during) the current feud
that Bret Hart has going with Jerry Lawler & Hakushi that Bret will
find a tag partner and chase Owen & Yokozuna for the tag titles.
- I received my copy of the "SMW Fanweek '95" announcement in the mail
yesterday. This year, Fanweek runs from 08/04/95 to 08/12/95. Here's
the short event run-down:
- 08/04 - "The Super Bowl of Wrestling" with belts from four different
promotions (SMW, WWF, NWA, and USWA, presumably) being
defended.
- 08/05 - "Parade of Champions" in Barbourville, KY
- 08/06 - spot show
- 08/07 - TV taping
- 08/08 - Cookout with the heels
- 08/09 - Q&A session with Jim Cornette
- 08/10 - spot show in Cookeville, TN
- 08/11 - "Carolina Chaos" in Lenoir, NC
- 08/12 - "Fire on the Mountain" in Johnson City
On one of the smaller spot show days, Al Snow will run a wrestling
training class. The current SMW crop will be in attendance, along
with Dan Severn and guys from the USWA and the WWF. Rates are:
- 08/04-08/08 - $425 single, $325 double
- 08/04-08/12 - $595 single, $450 double
Unfortunately for me, the final examination period here runs from
07/31 to 08/12, so unless I'm lucky enough to have my final exam
scheduled in the first few days of the exam period with enough
time left to do some serious power marking I could probably only
attend for the weekend...and even then, I've got to hope that the
exam doesn't fall on a bad day.
- From the Observer, outside estimates peg the WWF's In Your House buy
rate at 0.83, one of the lowest ever for the company. Estimates for
the Slamboree buy rate were in the 0.60 to 0.77 range according to
the Observer. I've heard the 0.60 buy rate more frequently and there's
even talk that the low number, the lowest since Hogan arrived in WCW,
is being blamed mostly on Flair's lack of credibility in the program
(i.e. I guess even marks know that Flair is going to do the job at
every turn).
- WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/18/95. Tentative line-up
includes:
- No Hulk Hogan
- Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair
- Blue Bloods vs. Nasty Boys for the WCW Tag Titles
- Sting vs. Meng for the US Title (tourney final ?)
- Diamond Dallas Page vs. Dave Sullivan
- Jim Duggan vs. Kamala
- Arn Anderson vs. Renegade for the TV Title
*- Craig Pittman vs. Marcus Bagwell
- Brian Pillman vs. Alex Wright
- The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/25/95. The line-up has:
*- Sid & Tantanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Diesel
- King of the Ring Tourney with Shawn Michaels, Kama, UT,
Bob Holly, Razor Ramon, and Mabel.
- The next UFC is slated for 07/14/95.
- WCW has another PPV on 07/16/95. This is the show that will take place
on a beach with free admission. Tentative line-up includes:
- Hulk Hogan vs. Vader for the WCW Title in a cage match
*- Paul Orndorff vs. Arn Anderson or Renegade for the TV Title
- WCW will air a taped PPV on 08/04/95 featuring matches from the
New Japan trip to Korea. The show will be cheaply priced at $12.95.
Meltzer reports that the following matches will be on the tape:
*- Antonio Inoki vs. Ric Flair
*- Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Hiro Hase & Kensuke Sasaki
*- Hawk vs. Tadao Yasuda
*- Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto
*- Scott Norton & Masa Chono vs. Akira Nogami & Takayuki Iizuka
*- Wild Pegasus vs. Too Cold Scorpio
*- Black Cat vs. El Samurai
*- Hiro Saito vs. Yuji Nagata
- The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/28/95.
- Interview: Here's the fifth installment of an interview with Jim
Cornette from Wrestling Perspective (P.O. Box 401, Camillus, NY,
12031-0401, USA; possibly still $1.50 per monthly issue). The
interview was conducted on 07/20/93 and will give you an idea of
the quality of the newsletter.
WP: On a brighter note, Bobby Eaton was in for a while. You hadn't
worked with him in a few years.
JC: It was great. The only drawback, and Bobby felt bad about this,
the first month that he was here, he was so sick most of the time, he
could hardly breath. He had a real bad bronchitis thing and he kept
apologizing every night. "I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do
anything." Almost puking after the matches. I said, "Bobby, don't
worry about it." They had some great matches and he was tremendous.
You know, Bobby is the kind of guy that you won't find anybody in the
wrestling business saying anything bad about Bobby. Bobby's the kind
of guy who knows this year that you can make a million dollars and
next year, you'll make $15,000. We treated him good, but you know what
Bobby said, "Well, Goddamn it, whatever you give me, it's more than
I'm making sitting at home watching TV." That's an attitude I always
had. It's not just because I'm the one paying somebody now and all of
a sudden I'm stingy. You've got to be realistic. He had a choice. He
could sit home for three months and not make any money or he could
come and work with us and have fun. He didn't get hurt. He could make
some money to pay bills.
WP: When we spoke to him earlier this year, he legitimately felt bad
that he had to leave you.
JC: Oh yeah, I felt bad too because we're such good friends. At least,
there's a guy you know is always going to give you his best effort and
be conscientious to do whatever he thinks will help the business. A
lot of people don't understand it. This is another reason why a lot of
guys that are here in the business are not younger guys but guys that
have been around. A lot of people today that have jumped right into
contracts or into one of the big organizations, they don't understand,
hey, if you don't do everything you can to help whatever office that
you're working for, if they don't succeed, there's going to be that
fewer places for you to work for in the future.
WP: Is that almost Bobby's downfall that he's too easy going and
willing to put his career aside if asked?
JC: No, the thing is that's their fault. If you don't make the best
use of your talent, that's your fault. The Midnight Express did jobs
for two years straight but we were still over because we were all good
workers who knew how to do it. We still had the TV time to go out
there and get ourselves over. We were still involved in angles that
would catch people's attention. What they've done with Bobby and what
they've done with a number of their really good workers is they've
just thrown them out on TV to get beaten. Never give them time to
talk, never put them in an angle that's interesting. That's the way
you kill talent. Look at how many jobs Ric Flair has done for Christ
sake. Anybody that's a good worker, you can beat them in the context
of what you're doing with them as long as you give them the TV time to
get back over, then there's no problem. Somebody's always going to get
beat. If you misuse your talent, it's your own fault. Especially if
you misuse as good a talent as Bobby Eaton. It's always been a part of
the business. A lot of guys won't understand where you're going or
what you're doing and sometimes you have to say, "Okay, there's five
matches tonight and the heels are going over in three. So that means
even though I'd rather not beat this guy, I got to beat him. But I'll
do something for him next week on TV." The guys who say, "I ain't
going to do that shit," then they get a bad reputation. Then again, if
there's a reason, if you're just being misused and abused, then it's
time to go somewhere else cause you're obviously not figured in. Now
there's no place left to go so you've got to do it.
WP: If you jump back a few years, there was a big stink about Sting
not doing a job for Terry Funk. How would you portray that since Sting
knew he was being pushed to the moon compared to everyone else in the
promotion?
JC: Truthfully, I was there and I don't remember, and I'm not saying
this didn't happen, but I don't even remember anyone in the dressing
room making a flap that Sting wouldn't do a job for him. Maybe the
boys didn't know it until they read it in the sheets, which happens a
lot. For anybody not to put Terry Funk over is crazy.
WP: Could it be that Terry, as good as he is, from a physical
standpoint didn't look credible compared to a Sting or a lot of the
muscleheads that were there?
JC: I, me, myself, I wouldn't do a job for daggum Van Hammer just
because he's the shits and nobody cares about him anyway. But I would
let fuckin' Mongolian Stomper beat me all day long because he's over.
The guys in the business today have forgotten that it's not what you
look like, it's whether the people believe in you or not. When Bob
Armstrong gets in the ring, people don't see a 53 or whatever year old
guy who hasn't wrestled regularly in a number of years. They see a
legend, a guy they remember seeing beat everybody from soup to nuts
and the guy's in tremendous shape and could whip three quarters of the
guys in this territory in a shoot. At the same time when they see Big
Sky, seven feet tall, 350 pounds and can't stick his thumb in his ass,
they fart. It's not what you look like, it's whether the people
believe in you and whether the stuff that you do looks credible. I
tell you what. Terry Funk can stick Sting's head up his ass any day of
the week if he wanted to. But we've gotten away from that. "I can't do
a job for that guy, his arms aren't as big as mine." Well fuck, how
big was Bruce Lee? You can go too far. I mean I wouldn't advocate
bringing Cowboy Lang back and have him beat Harley Race, for Christ
sake.
WP: Would you do it with the Lightning Kid ?
JC: That's something else. God almighty, oh fuck, oh Pete. I met the
Lightning Kid a couple of times and I think he's a great guy and I
think he does some outrageous stuff. When I heard they put him over
Ted DiBiase, I cried. Damien Demento, that's one of those points where
we're stretching credibility just a tad bit too far. My thing with
Lightning Kid is the underdog deal. When he beat Razor Ramon, I
thought that was tremendous. When Razor Ramon pounded the piss out of
him and he ran off with the money, I thought that was great. But
remember what happened, and this is not the same as, with the Mulkeys.
They were over like a million dollars. They won a match and nobody
gave a shit after that. They lost their mystique. If you've got an
underdog, the whole point is he knows that he can't beat these guys
but he won't quit trying. Then you give him a win every so great often
and of course, he can go on TV and beat Mike Samson. But he can't beat
a star. But he can give them their best. That's what we're doing with
White Boy and Bobby Blaze right now. Bobby Blaze basically fucked up
and got a win over the Dirty White Boy. It was a sheer fuckup and it
will never happen again in 100 years. But White Boy was so upset that
he said, "I want this fuckin' little kid back in the ring." Bobby
Blaze says, "You know what, that was a daggum fluke. I couldn't beat
him again if I tried 100 times. But I tell you what. it felt awful
good to me to do it. I got my brains kicked out, but I beat the Dirty
White Boy. The reason I did it was because Dirty White Boy looked at
me like I was a joke. When I looked at him, I looked at him like he
was a great champion. He made a mistake and I was lucky enough to come
out on top. White Boy, if you want to wrestle me again, then I'll
wrestle you. I know I can't beat you, but I'll never quit trying." How
many people are going to identify with that? They're going to say,
"That fuckin' kid, he's got some guts. He knows the guy's going to
kick his ass, but he's man enough to say, 'Well, I'll fight you
anyway.'" So we had the match around and nobody got the stipulations
on this right in any of the sheets. The deal is White Boy said, "I
will wrestle you every time I get the chance to and if I beat you, it
don't count. I can pin you 100 times. I'm going to beat on you until
you say you've had enough of me and you leave the ring and admit you
can't handle me. But if you beat me once, you win." So White Boy beats
him three, four or five times in the course of the match, keeps right
on going, pounds the shit out of him. He gets a little bit of a
comeback at the end just to get the people to blow. The biggest pop
you'll hear of the night is when White Boy has beat this guy to the
point to where there's total silence. People are sick to death of it
and then he's standing there and Blaze comes up and hits him right in
the nuts. The place blows. It's the biggest pop of the night and he
dives off the top and White Boy moves and White Boy gets on him and
pounds the crap out of him and the referee finally says, "Fuck it,
ring the bell. Blaze can't continue. Dirty White Boy is the winner."
They drag Blaze out and cart him off and White Boy is mad because he
won the match. That way, the people say, "That White Boy can kill
somebody. But boy, that daggum Bobby Blaze, he wouldn't quit trying.
What a kid." You have an underdog and he starts winning every week, he
ain't an underdog anymore. With the Lightning Kid thing, I think
they're giving him too many wins. He ought to be getting his ass
kicked and the people will say, "Goddamn that Kid can do great stuff.
But he ain't no bigger around than a daggum fence post so he's getting
his ass kicked, but he won't quit trying ." (laughs) An underdog with
a better than 50 percent won-loss record ain't exactly an underdog.
There are NBA teams that don't do as well as the Kid's doing. That's
what I think the difference is. But we're going for more hardcore
credibility than they are so it works in their thing, but, I could use
him for a toothpick. They admire guts around here, but if you go too
far with it, it's the same thing with a pretty boy. He might appeal to
some of the women, but he'll have instant heat with the guys cause
they'll say, "Fuck, he blow dries his hair." (laughs) In California,
everybody's got to look like a movie star because they see them on the
street. Here in Tennessee, it's different. That's why the difference
is you appeal to different people in different places. The Lightning
Kid, everybody says, "The promoters have a size fetish." Look at the
people we've used. I don't have any size fetish. Tennessee's always
been a place for smaller guys to work. Chris Candito is a smaller guy,
but his height matches his weight. Look at Bobby Fulton. Tim Horner
ain't that big. We don't have a lot of big guys. We don't have guys
that are seven feet tall and 100 pounds and we don't have guys that
are five feet tall and 400 pounds. Perception is alot. I don't put a
lot of stock in perception as most people do in this business as far
as the guy's got to be big and have a great body. The guy's just got
to look like whatever it is he's supposed to be doing. So anyway,
that's that (laughs).
- Booking Prediction Tourney: I'll get Slamboree results out over the
weekend.
- WWW: This post is presented weekly, presumably with some short delay,
on Mark Long's r.s.p-w home page on the Web. That page contains a lot
of interesting wrestling info, so give it a try at:
http://www.luc.edu/~mlong/wrestling.html
- Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos.
If you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request. It
appears that the istrain.health.ufl.edu ftp site has been wiped
clean up r.s.p-w stuff and nobody knows what's going on.
Herb...